Will AI Ignore, Preserve or Improve on Our Values? Imagine a future where advanced AIs follow every instruction flawlessly – but humanity feels strangely adrift. Our tools are obedient, but the ‘soul’ of our civilisation feels absent. This is the hidden danger of V-risk – value erosion. In this post I explore what I explore…
Some people want to infuse AI with the codification of our existing moral judgements. CEV takes the idea a bit further. In short, CEV is a conceptual approach to aligning superintelligent AI by designing it to act according to an idealised version of what humans would want if they had more knowledge, were faster thinkers,…
The concept of a non-arbitrary objective value space offers a compelling framework for understanding how to navigate to more valuable worlds. This framework presupposes the existence of stance-independent normative truths – metaphysical/ontological, epistemic, scientific & ethical principles that rational agents will converge upon given sufficient cognitive sophistication [1]. Here I will mostly talk in relation…
Is self-interest by necessity the default motivation for all agents?Will Superintelligence necessarily become a narcissistic utility monster? No, self-interest is not necessarily the default motivation of all agents. While self-interest is a common and often foundational drive in many agents (biological or artificial), other motivations can and do arise, either naturally or through design, depending…
Capability Control: The Tool or Slave Model Capability control focuses on limiting what an AI can do, rather than shaping why it does it. The idea is to ensure AI systems behave predictably and stay within strict bounds – like a powerful but obedient tool. This includes: In this model, the AI is treated less…
In this interview Jeff Sebo discusses the ethical implications of artificial intelligence and why we must take the possibility of AI sentience seriously now. He explores challenges in measuring moral significance, the risks of dismissing AI as mere tools, and strategies to mitigate suffering in artificial systems. Drawing on themes from the paper ‘Taking AI…
Concerning sentient AI, we would like to avoid unnecessary suffering in artificial systems. It’s hard for biological systems like humans to turn off suffering without appropriate pharmacology i.e. from aspirin to anesthetics etc. AI may be able to self administer pain killers – a kind of wireheading in reverse. Similarly to wireheading in AI systems…
In this short interview, Peter Singer, a renowned philosopher and ethicist widely recognized for his thought-provoking ideas about universal ethics, discusses the value of life, moral progress, population ethics (aka population axiology), the far future, the uncertainties inherent in philosophical reasoning, moral realism (objective normative truths) and ‘alternative facts’. Points covered:0:00 Intro 0:08 Moral progress…
There is so much wrong with the world right now – I don’t know where to begin. I wake up early with dread sometimes – it’s hard to know what thread to tug at – the amorphous confusion festooning the great big everything seems so hopeless. It would be a lot easier if everyone were…
“Thoughts on modernity’s monoculture mistake” – Here Robin Hanson argues that “cultural drift” poses a significant threat to societies, especially in the context of rapid technological and social change. Cultural drift refers to the gradual shift in societal norms and values over time, often driven by small, incremental changes that go unnoticed until they lead…
